$4.4 Million in contracts awarded locally for School Lunch Program

The ASG Procurement Office has issued letters of award to six local companies who have bid successfully for the Department of Education’s school lunch program for fiscal year 2012-2013, a program which is 100% funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the summary list of contract winners, the total cost for the program comes to more than $4.40 million and the largest single award of just over $1.54 million is to O & O Inc. for the Milk contract, while the juice contract of $101,520 went to GHC Reid & Company.

In the FY 2011-2012 school year, the total cost for the school lunch program contract awards came to $6.54 million — with the largest single award of $2.06 million to Island’s Choice for the milk contract, while the juice contract of $151,000 went to YST Limited.

The current school year of 2012-2013, YST Limited was awarded five different categories of products totaling $1.74 million. The company is to provide “frozen grocery” at the cost of $996,246.50; “dry and canned grocery” at $429,307.50; “bakery” goods at $175,814.50; “snacks” at $70,326; and “cereal” at $70,415.50.

According to the Procurement Office, Pacific Sales was awarded a $176,066 contract to provide “disposables and cleaning” products; Samton Polynesia is awarded a $599,985 contract to provide “seasonal produce” and Pritchard’s Bakery has a contract of $243,300 to provide bread.

It was on Oct. 5 that the Procurement Office issued a request for bids (IFB) to provide “various food commodities, including milk, juice and water” for the DOE School Lunch Program covering the period of Nov. 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013. Bids closed on Oct. 26.

According to the summary from the Procurement Office, the “water” bid product category was canceled and Samoa News understands that it’s being put out for re-bid on its own.

As of Oct. 1 this year, Sodexo — the U.S. based firm that managed the program for a couple of years — no longer had a contract with DOE for the program. Samoa News was told at the time that DOE had decided to handle the school lunch program in-house; something DOE had done prior to Sodexo management.

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